Robert H Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Rehovot

31/05/2026

TODAY 💫

Last chance to join Hebrew University’s Digital Open Day! 🌿🌳
📅May 31st, 2026
💻 Online (Zoom)
Join us and get the inside scoop:
✨Explore your study options
✨English-taught programs
✨Scholarships & tuition
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Spots are filling up - don’t delay>> https://tinyurl.com/a4y8tbxa

31/05/2026

Prof. Maggie Levy and fellow researchers Anton Fennec and Neta Rotem developed a fungus-based extract that boosts crop yields and improves taste, naturally. Their method increases growth, enhances sweetness, and delivers more reliable results without relying on chemicals or live fungi. This innovation could transform sustainable agriculture and help meet global food demands while protecting the environment. 🍄

Israeli researchers show a fungal extract can boost crop yields, improve taste, and reduce reliance on chemical fertilizers.

18/05/2026

Last chance to join Hebrew University’s Digital Open Day! 🌿🌳
📅May 31st, 2026
💻 Online (Zoom)
Join us and get the inside scoop:
✨Explore your study options
✨English-taught programs
✨Scholarships & tuition
✨Ask us anything
Spots are filling up - don’t delay>> https://tinyurl.com/a4y8tbxa

12/04/2026

Indoor air quality in modern buildings is increasingly difficult to maintain without high energy costs, and while vertical green walls offer a natural solution, their inconsistent performance and complex maintenance have limited widespread use.
VertINGreen, developed by Dr. David Helman and Yehuda Yungstein of the Department of Soil and Water Sciences, solves this by using AI, remote sensing, and plant data to both predict how green walls will perform before installation and monitor their health in real time—making them a reliable, efficient, and scalable tool for improving air quality and reducing energy consumption.

The research paper titled “VertINGreen: A Practical Application for Planning and Monitoring Indoor Vertical Green Living Walls Based on Remote Sensing and Machine Learning Models” is now available in Indoor Air and can be accessed at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1155/ina/5782002 .

📸Vertical Green Wall in the Lab Used for This Study | Credit: David Helman Lab

15/03/2026

A deep genetic mystery has baffled plant scientists for decades. Although leaves, stems, and flowers develop in strikingly similar ways across many plant species, scientists have struggled to identify the shared DNA instructions that guide their formation.
A new study led by Prof. Idan Efroni from the Institute of Plant Sciences and Genetics in Agriculture now uncovers this hidden regulatory code and shows that its core has been conserved for 300 million years of plant evolution. Remarkably, these ancient DNA sequences were hidden in plain sight but were obscured by the constant reshuffling and duplication of plant genomes. By uncovering this deep-time blueprint, the research reshapes our understanding of plant evolution, showing how core regulatory logic is preserved and modified to guide the diversity of plant shapes and forms. The findings also carry important implications for agriculture, where fine-tuning gene regulation, rather than altering genes themselves, opens new paths to developing more resilient and productive crops.

The research paper titled “A deep-time landscape of plant cis-regulatory sequence evolution” is now available in Science and can be accessed at 10.1126/science.adt8983

25/02/2026

How do mosquitoes sense repellents? A new study led by Dr. Jonathan Bohbot of the Department of Entomology, together with collaborators from Baylor University, University of Washington, University of California, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and international partners, has identified an odorant receptor that detects repellent odors and activates a neural “avoidance” pathway.

The international research team discovered that a highly conserved odorant receptor, known as OR49, is finely tuned to detect borneol in several major mosquito species, including Aedes aegypti and Culex mosquitoes, which are responsible for transmitting diseases such as dengue, Zika, and West Nile virus. Activation of this receptor triggers a neural pathway that leads mosquitoes to avoid the source of the odor.
Using genetic engineering alongside electrophysiological recordings, brain imaging, and behavioral experiments, the researchers showed that borneol activates a specialized sensory neuron in the mosquito’s maxillary palp, an organ central to host detection. Notably, this neuron sits beside the palp’s attraction-sensing neurons, those that help mosquitoes find humans by detecting carbon dioxide and other body odors, highlighting a built-in neural architecture that integrates repulsion signals alongside host-seeking cues.

To speed identification of the most relevant natural activators of this pathway, the team turned to an unexpected source: cannabis essential oil. By screening and fractionating multiple cannabis oil preparations and using Or49 activation as a biological readout to guide purification, they connected complex plant mixtures to specific behaviorally active constituents and ultimately pinpointed borneol as the most potent Or49 activator in the study, directly linking plant chemistry to a precise mosquito sensory target.

This discovery reveals how repellents override mosquitoes’ attraction to humans, paving the way for more targeted and effective protection worldwide.

The research paper titled “A conserved odorant receptor underpins borneol-mediated repellency in culicine mosquitoes” is now available in Nature Communications and can be accessed at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-69511-z

Photo Credit: Evyatar Sar-Shalom

23/02/2026

A study, led by Dr. Oded Skaliter and Prof. Alexander Vainstein from the Institute of Plant Sciences and Genetics in Agriculture, used a virus-based CRISPR system to precisely edit the gatekeeper enzyme HMGR in petunias and lettuce, effectively unlocking a natural metabolic “brake” that restricts scent and nutrient production. By fine-tuning this regulatory control rather than disabling the gene entirely, they enabled plants to channel more energy into producing aromatic compounds and health-promoting antioxidants. The result was more vigorous growth, stronger floral fragrance, and enhanced nutritional value. Importantly, because no foreign DNA was introduced, this transgene-free approach offers a powerful new framework for developing higher-quality, nutrient-enriched crops through precision gene editing.

Scientists have long sought to understand why some plants are fragrant powerhouses while others remain subtle. Now, a research team from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has cracked a genetic "bottleneck," using precision gene editing to boost the scent of flowers and the nutritional profile of ve...

22/02/2026

We were honored to host a distinguished Indian business delegation at the Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment last week. Senior representatives from leading businesses and academia visited our campus to explore opportunities in Agri‑Tech and Bio‑Tech collaboration. The delegation met with our research and development leadership to discuss shared interests and potential partnerships that may advance future innovation.

מכון היצוא - Israel Export Institute Israel in Bengaluru

26/01/2026

843 Days. Finally, everyone is home.

19/01/2026

🚀 A Biological Revolution: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and BioArmix are Disrupting Global Aquaculture

This is not incremental innovation. This is a biological revolution. An Israeli breakthrough is eradicating harmful bacteria in fishponds, making antibiotics and vaccines obsolete. Healthier fish. Cleaner systems. Smarter food. And it’s happening now. 🐟🌱

💡 Nature-Inspired Biotech Innovation
Developed at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, this technology leverages naturally occurring predatory bacteria that actively hunt and destroy pathogenic bacteria in aquaculture systems. No antibiotics. No vaccines. No collateral damage.

The results speak for themselves: healthier fish, faster growth, higher feed efficiency, and superior-quality yields, all while protecting beneficial microorganisms and preserving the ecosystem.

The team behind this breakthrough includes Prof. Amos Nussinovitch, Prof. Edward Jurkevitch, and Dr. Gal Sasson, and it is now being commercialized by BioArmix, led by Dr. Tzvi Zvirin together with Dr.
Shiri Elmedvi Baran and Ms. Ghenwa Samara. Their innovation transforms living predatory bacteria into a shelf-stable, room-temperature product, with over three years of stability, ready to be activated on demand. This is high-level science turned into industrial-scale impact.

🌍 Why It Matters
Bacterial diseases cost the global aquaculture industry billions of dollars every year and threaten global food security. By replacing antibiotics and vaccines, this solution tackles antibiotic resistance, cuts operational costs, reduces environmental impact, and strengthens aquaculture as a climate-resilient protein source for a growing population.

🌊 Global Stage, Israeli Leadership
This breakthrough is being showcased at Sea The Future 2026 in Eilat, a global forum on aquaculture and food security. Israeli R&D delivers world-changing solutions.

👏 From Lab to Market
Kudos to the scientific founders, the BioArmix team, and all partners who transformed elite academic research into real-world impact. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem innovation continues to lead global revolutions.

🤝 Let’s Collaborate
Israeli academia, startups, and industry are actively shaping the future of sustainable protein. Investors, aquaculture leaders, and strategic partners, the time to connect is now.

🤝Yissum.
Your Innovation. Our Journey. Shared Impact.

Read more: https://tinyurl.com/4u7khuhd



The Hebrew University of Jerusalem